INTERVENTIONS: Search Party

Inua Ellams

September 20-21

“Wel­com­ing, soft-spo­ken, ultra-casu­al… but Search Par­ty is… the work of an immense­ly eru­dite, mul­ti­fac­eted, and busy artist… His poet­ry is thought­ful, ten­der, and mus­cu­lar.” — VULTURE

“It’s a lux­u­ry to hear Ellams… I high­ly rec­om­mend. Go hang with him.“ — THE NEW YORK TIMES

CLICK HERE TO DOWN­LOAD THE EVENT PROGRAM »

Join award-win­ning poet and inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed play­wright Inua Ellams as he brings his chaot­ic, audi­ence-led poet­ry event Search Par­ty to Gov­er­nors Island — its first-ever out­door iteration.

Pick a word, any word. Prompt­ed by audi­ence sug­ges­tion and open con­ver­sa­tion, Ellams search­es through his archive, unearths refined or raw gold, and presents his trea­sure in a spon­ta­neous per­for­mance. It’s an act of call and response that hear­kens back to the birth of sto­ry­telling. At this unique­ly futur­is­tic and espe­cial­ly chaot­ic inter­ac­tive event, the artist could­n’t be more present.

PER­FOR­MANCE SCHEDULE

• Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 20, 7:30pm
• Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 21, 2:15pm
• Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 21, 7:30pm

Born in Nige­ria, Ellams is a poet, play­wright & per­former, graph­ic artist & design­er. His play­writ­ing cred­its include Bar­ber Shop Chron­i­cles, The Half God of Rain­fall, and Three Sis­ters.

Pre­sent­ed as part of INTER­VEN­TIONS, a site-respon­sive, mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary free annu­al per­for­mance series from Gov­er­nors Island Arts that presents local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al artists and invites audi­ences to expe­ri­ence work made and adapt­ed for the out­doors. Inter­ven­tions is curat­ed by Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island.